While the Austin (Texas) City Council (and Mayor) have yet to approve the well-over $820,000 in tax incentives Kenilworth is seeking, as an inducement to become potentially the fourth company to set up a substantial IT hub inside (or near) the University of Texas, at Austin Dell Medical campus — and its vaunted Innovation District — my hunch is that this will happen. [Having this sort of loose, unfettered and informal access — to soon to be prescribing med students — has never been a bad biz strategy, for Mother Merck, sez me.]

One of the under-discussion “commitments” would require Merck to create at least 400 jobs, each with an average salary of at least $84,000 per year. Here is a bit — from the local Austin city limits business news outlet, overnight:

. . . .[Merck] is considering a location at Dell Med or elsewhere in the Innovation District, roughly focused on the area around 15th and Trinity streets but with an economic spillover that is bound to spread all over downtown, according to a Friday announcement by the city of Austin and city documents posted online.

“Dell Med is focused on our mission of transforming the ways this community gets healthy and stays healthy,” Dell Med Dean Clay Johnston said in a statement. “While a number of details need to be worked out, a collaborative relationship with this company could create unique opportunities to fulfill our mission in different and far-reaching ways.”The company is considering a location at Dell Med or elsewhere in the Innovation District. . . according to a Friday announcement by the city of Austin and city documents posted online.

“Dell Med is focused on our mission of transforming the ways this community gets healthy and stays healthy,” Dell Med Dean Clay Johnston said in a statement. “While a number of details need to be worked out, a collaborative relationship with this company could create unique opportunities to fulfill our mission in different and far-reaching ways. . . .”